Charter explains outage

A Charter representative said the TV and internet outage Tuesday that affected north-central Montana customers was caused when a dump truck with a raised bed tore down fiber-optic lines.

Regional Communications Director Bret Picciolo said customers in Havre, Helena, Loma, Cut Bank and Great Falls were affected by the damage and lost service.

“Crews worked together to repair the damage as quickly as possible and were able to restore services by 9:30 p.m.,” Picciolo said in an email.

Picciolo did not provide any information where that dump truck was when it tore the lines down and said that, due to competitive reasons, he couldn’t share how many customers lost service.

Many Charter customers in Montana began to experience internet and cable TV outages sometime around noon Tuesday. Some customers reported losing internet serve, others were said to have lost cable television service as well.

The outages lasted hours, and some were reported to have carried on into Wednesday.